We have a total of 14 games on the docket with four teams on bye.

The teams off this week are the Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins and the Minnesota Vikings.

You could be needing to replace some important pieces of your fantasy team with Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, Colts RB Jonathan Taylor and Vikings WR Justin Jefferson all out this week.

How will Patriots QB Cam Newton fare against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday?

Here is our Fantasy Football Sit/Start for Week 7 of the 2020 NFL season…and enjoy our awesome MS Paint masterpiece of QB Ryan Tannehill of the Tennessee Titans.

I want to explain what I mean by “sit” and “start.” Of course you are going to start some of the guys i say to bench this week, because you probably used high draft picks or a lot of money in an auction for them. My ‘sit’ players are guys I am just not completely sold that they will have good weeks. If you have a guy that you are on the fence about, maybe this will help you pick between the players.

START’EM

• QB Ryan Tannehill (Tennessee Titans) – Tannehill most likely started the season on a bench or on the waiver wire, but due to his increased performance (and bye weeks), he’s now a must-start in all leagues. He has thrown at least three touchdowns in three of his five games and has thrown seven touchdowns combined in his last two games. The Steelers are a tough opponent, but Tannehill will need to throw in this game.
• RB Boston Scott (Philadelphia Eagles) – The Eagles could be without RB Miles Sanders for a few weeks due to a knee injury. Their game is Thursday against the Giants, who have given up a ton of points against running backs this season. Scott hasn’t been used much this season, but came up by down the stretch for them last year. He has good hands too, so he should be a nice pickup in PPR leagues.
• WR Tee Higgins (Cincinnati Bengals) – Higgins started the year as WR3 in Cincinnati, but you could make an argument that he’s a legit WR1 now. He is coming off his best game as a pro (6 catches for 125 yards). He isn’t getting into the endzone as much as you’d like, but he may have a good matchup in the secondary against Cleveland. It just depends if the Browns put CB Denzel Ward on him or not.
• TE Robert Tonyan (Green Bay Packers) – Tonyan had a pretty forgettable game against Tampa Bay. He had a lot of momentum heading into that game and after his three-touchdown performance against the Falcons, he couldn’t match the hype. He had a good matchup against Houston this week. After Packers QB Aaron Rodgers threw two picks early in the game, the entire offense just screeched to a crawl. Tonyan should have some redzone targets against Houston.
• Los Angeles Chargers Defense & Special Teams – The Chargers are coming off a bye week and are facing a struggling Jacksonville team. The Jaguars have lost five games in a row and have only scored more than 16 points once in the last month.
• RB JaMycal Hasty (San Francisco 49ers) – It looks like the Niners will be without RB Raheem Mostert for a few more weeks after suffering another injury. I know RB Jerick McKinnon is the backup, but Hasty has been seeing more touches. He will fill the role that RB Jeff WIlson Jr. had before he got injured himself. There’s enough touches to go around in the Niners offense for Hasty to be a sneaky play against the Patriots this week.
• WR Tim Patrick (Denver Broncos) – Patrick has put together back-to-back 100+ yard games and appears to be the top target for QB Drew Lock. Many thought WR Jerry Jeudy would grab a much larger role in the passing game due to all the injuries, but Patrick has benefited the most so far. Denver should need to pass a lot against Kansas City.
• TE Richard Rodgers (Philadelphia Eagles) – The Eagles will be without both of their stud tight ends for a few weeks. Dallas Goedert has been on IR with an ankle fracture and Zach Ertz suffered a high ankle sprain last week. Rodgers is the most talented overall tight end Philly has on their roster. They have former WR Hakeem Butler on the roster, but I can’t imagine they will be able to play him much due to his inexperience at blocking much larger defenders. Butler has elite hands, but the other tight end stuff may not be there yet. The Eagles offense leans heavily on tight ends, so Rodgers should be the tight end you want in Philly.
• WR Keelan Cole Sr. (Jacksonville Jaguars) – I’ve been high on Jaguars WR Laviska Shenault the last few weeks, but Cole has done more with his targets. Cole is coming off a six catch, 143-yard performance against Detroit. He is averaging 13.4 yards per catch on the season. They will need a few big plays against the Chargers if they hope to be competitive on Sunday.
• RB Melvin Gordon (Denver Broncos) – The Broncos are coming off an upset win over New England. Gordon had to miss it due to being sick, but his backfield teammates gained 127 yards against the Patriots. It doesn’t appear that his illness was COVID-related, so he should be good to go this week against Kansas City. I expect Gordon to get 25+ carries against the Chiefs.
• Cleveland Browns Defense & Special Teams – The Browns are coming off a blowout loss to the Steelers. They need a bounce-back win against in-state rival Cincinnati. Cleveland won their last meeting 35-30 earlier this season. Bengals rookie QB Joe Burrow had a solid game, but he only connected on 37 on his 61 attempts. Cleveland didn’t force an interception, but if Burrow is that inaccurate again this week, the Browns should force a pick or two.
• QB Teddy Bridgewater (Carolina Panthers) – Bridgewater had a pretty bad game against the Bears. He threw two picks and failed to throw a touchdown. Chicago has a very underrated defense, so it was unlikely that he would fare well in fantasy against the them. Bridgewater faces the Saints this week, who have allowed some opposing quarterbacks some solid fantasy weeks. If you own Colts QB Philip Rivers or Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, who are both on bye, you may want to take a chance on Bridgewater this week.

SIT’EM

• RB Malcolm Brown (Los Angeles Rams) – I’m down on the entire Rams backfield this year. They appear to just go with the hot hand. RB Darrel Henderson seems to have the hot hand right now, but running backs Cam Akers or Malcolm Brown could regain some of their touches at any point. The Rams face the Bears on Monday night, so I’m not expecting any of the Rams running backs to have good weeks in fantasy.
• QB Cam Newton (New England Patriots) – I know you don’t have Newton on your team for a ton of passing yards, but if he’s starting to throw interceptions, he’s a mediocre quarterback in fantasy. He faces the Niners on Sunday and they still have some decent (healthy) players on defense. Could last week’s interceptions be from Newton rebounding from having COVID? I don’t know, but if he had trouble against Denver, I don’t expect a good game this week against San Francisco.
• WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (Pittsburgh Steelers) – JuJu is getting lost in the shuffle a bit in Pittsburgh. They are very deep with wide receivers and someone like WR Chase Claypool, who was WR4 at the start of the year, are getting more and more targets in the redzone. JuJu only has ten catches for 77 yards and one touchdown in his last three games. He has a tough matchup against Tennessee and could have another game with limited targets.
• RB Devin Singletary (Buffalo Bills) – Singletary hasn’t replicated the same stats he had last year. He has only gained 57 yards on 22 carries the last two games combined. RB Zack Moss should be 100% this week after returning from injury and I expect him to eat more into Singletary’s workload. I’d actually rather own Moss right now.
• QB Andy Dalton (Dallas Cowboys) – I was way too optimistic on Dalton last week. He did throw the ball 54 times against Arizona, but he only gained 266 yards through the air with that amount of attempts. He also only threw for one touchdowns and had two interceptions. His opponent this week is Washington, whose defense is on the same level as Arizona. I expect a similar output from Dalton this week and should only be started in deep leagues.
• WR Brandon Aiyuk (San Francisco 49ers) – I don’t think Aiyuk should be owned in standard leagues now that TE George Kittle and WR Deebo Samuel are back. He is a borderline deep league play at this point. Aiyuk would need to break one or two of his limited targets for a large gain for him to be worth owning.
• TE Cameron Brate (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) – It took a handful of games for the Bucs to start to use TE Rob Gronkowski. I thought Brate would be used more now that Howard is done for the year, but Gronk is coming off his best game of the year. Brate will get a couple targets a game, but if Gronk is getting eight or more targets a game, there aren’t many left for Brate.
• New Orleans Saints Defense & Special Teams – The Saints have allowed some big fantasy weeks to opposing quarterbacks this season. Just look at their schedule and you will see quarterback after quarterback having one of their best games of the season against the Saints. Chargers rookie QB Justin Herbert is coming off his best game of his career in their overtime win over New Orleans. Panthers QB Teddy Bridgewater, who started games for the Saints last year, could be in line to have one of his better games of the season.
• WR A.J. Green (Cincinnati Bengals) – I know it seems like Green could ‘be back’ after catching eight passes for 96 yards, but the track record this season is that he is a WR3 for the Bengals this year. Bengals rookie QB Joe Burrow is just looking for wide receivers Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd more this season. Green could have a tough matchup against a top Browns cornerback this week.
• RB David Johnson (Houston Texans) – It’s clear that the Texans got the worst end of their trade when they sent WR DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for RB David Johnson. It just doesn’t appear like Johnson is a great fit for the Texans. He has great hands and can be a game-changer in the passing game, yet they’ve only thrown his way 20 times in six games this season. He has a tough matchup against the Packers this week. Johnson is barely a flex play this week.

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About the Author…

Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.